The Trumpinator went on the march via phone through the Sunday morning shows, and then he tweeted this to mock the candidates who went to a Koch Brothers event this weekend: "I wish good luck to all of the Republican candidates that traveled to California to beg for money etc. from the Koch Brothers. Puppets?" BOOM! I guess. The five who went to the event were Ted Cruz, Jeb! Bush, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina. This is the advantage that Trump has – as a billionaire he can fund his own campaign while the other candidates have to...

What a hoot to watch pundits clutching their pearls and whimpering for smelling salts aghast over the latest “shocking” thing Donald Trump said, while The Donald ignores them and continues to soar. Silly kingmakers just don’t know what to make of this. Well, we do!

We are now 467 days from the next presidential election on November 8, 2016, to elect the 45th president of the United States. In just 7 days, on August 6th, Fox News will be holding the first debate for Republican presidential candidates – in Cleveland, Ohio. Politico reported that there will actually be two Fox News debates on August 6th: a 5PM debate for all 16 announced candidates and a 9PM “main event” for “the 10 candidates with the highest average in national polls.” In preparation for the upcoming debates, we asked some Oregon Republican political insiders to give us...

The Jeb Bush experiment continues to be fascinating to watch. As you may recall, Bush said not long ago that a GOP presidential candidate needs to be prepared to lose the primary in order to win the general election — implicitly suggesting that he will not fall victim to the dynamic that claimed Mitt Romney. Here’s the latest example of Jeb Bush employing that strategy: He audaciously suggested that as a general matter, GOP primary voters are hostile to compromise. The New York Times reports on a Bush appearance in Orlando, Florida: “We need men and women of good will...

Ivana Trump once accused the real estate tycoon of ‘rape,’ although she later clarified: not in the ‘criminal sense.’ Donald Trump introduced his presidential campaign to the world with a slur against Mexican immigrants, accusing them of being “rapists” and bringing crime into the country. “I mean somebody’s doing it!…Who’s doing the raping?” Donald Trump said, when asked to defend his characterization. It was an unfortunate turn of phrase for Trump—in more ways than one. Not only does the current front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination have a history of controversial remarks about sexual assault, but as it turns out,...

Jeb Bush implored his Republican presidential rivals Monday to reject the "crazy message of hate" that he sees at play in the campaign and cast himself as a "committed conservative," but not an "angry" one, in remarks rooted in Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric and the backlash that followed. As conservatives, he said in a speech to pastors, "if we act with our heart, people will rise." Afterward, Bush gave his call for political civility a harder edge in a raucous rally where he urged other GOP contenders to quit scolding each other. "We have to campaign with joy in our...

The long-simmering disconnect between the Republican Party's conservative base and its leaders in government has degenerated into a full-blown schism. While President Obama accelerates his increasingly radical agenda, the GOP, despite its congressional majority, can barely muster an objection, let alone block his momentum. Other than to offer a toothless public rebuke of Obama's destructive schemes, what was the point of the 2014 GOP congressional landslide? It's no longer just a small percentage of conservatives questioning the GOP. Our people are furious — and rightly so. I've recently shared my opinion that Donald Trump's explosive surge is because of his...

RINO Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham will participate in the Voter’s First Forum in New Hampshire on August 3rd along with 11 other GOP candidates. But Donald Trump will not attend the event after the organizers published a brutal hit piece on the GOP front-runner.

OSKALOOSA, Iowa—Those who flocked to Donald Trump’s campaign event here this weekend said they liked the Republican presidential candidate’s willingness to make an unvarnished case for an antiestablishment campaign. Interviews with dozens of the more than 1,000 people who came to see the reality-television star showed they have been drawn to him because of their skepticism of polished politicians. "I am the silent majority. He talks for me,” said Jill Jepsen, a 61-year-old Oskaloosa retiree who brought her copy of Mr. Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal,” first published in 1987, for him to sign.

Two decades ago, in the spring of 1996, Newsweek magazine described a group of voters it called the “radical middle.” Formerly known as the Silent Majority, then the Reagan Democrats, these voters had supported Ross Perot in 1992, and were hoping the Texas billionaire would run again. Voters in the radical middle, Newsweek wrote, “see the traditional political system itself as the country’s chief problem.” The radical middle is attracted to populists, outsiders, businessmen such as Perot and Lee Iacocca who have never held office, and to anyone, according to Newsweek, who is the “tribune of anti-insider discontent.” Newt Gingrich...

Speaker John Boehner twice stopped short of declaring the House would cut off all government funding to Planned Parenthood, and said he would rely on the results of a pair of congressional investigations to guide his decision. Two videos allegedly show Planned Parenthood officials discussing sales of tissue and organs from aborted fetuses. Boehner said he would wait for the House Energy and Commerce and Judiciary committees to finish their investigations before announcing a response. …

There won't be a federal-government shutdown this year, and Congress will work on a temporary spending measure in September, once lawmakers return from their summer recess, House Speaker John Boehner, said Thursday. Democrats and Republicans have been unable to agree on annual spending bills, and without a deal by Sept. 30, the government will partially shut down. A temporary spending measure will be needed to avoid the Sept. 30 deadline, but details haven't been decided, Boehner said.

Jeb Bush says he’s not an angry candidate. Far from it, in fact. He says he represents a more positive option for voters as a “happy warrior” who refuses to bend the knee to pessimism. Instead, Bush says he will run an inclusive presidential campaign in places other Republican candidates won’t go – black churches, the Hispanic community and on college campuses. He says he will campaign with “heart and conviction” and campaign to win. And that, he hopes, will be good enough for the future of America.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush headlined a forum Wednesday night sponsored by Americans For Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group based in Washington. -snip- “We have to reform big programs that have been growing at an exponential rate, and that will require the kind of leadership we have not had in the last six years. This president has not even recognized this is a problem, well it is a 50 trillion dollar problem,” he told the roughly 300 person crowd at the Radisson Hotel. When addressing entitlement reform, Bush repeatedly touted Congressman Paul Ryan’s efforts in the House.

More than 100 people turned out to hear Jeb Bush campaign on Tuesday. Bush told the crowd the Republican party will not win the election if it doesn't become more inclusive and spoke to the crowd about hope. "This will be the greatest time to be alive. I wake up each day thinking that," Bush said. He talked about creating change. "A Republican president, and I hope to be that Republican president, will actually, fasten your seat belts here; this may be a radical idea, may have to talk to somebody who doesn't agree with them," Bush said.

The experienced, accessible and disciplined candidate gets sarcastic in South Carolina. Jeb Bush said he’d give John Kasich a shout-out from the debate stage if the Ohio governor doesn’t make the cut. He publicly lamented the media’s obsession with Donald Trump. He even mocked the notion that his family lineage means he’s been waiting his whole life to become president. “It’s not like I’ve been kind of in some test tube waiting for my chance now, the third Bush,” he quipped. “I’ve actually had a life.” The 200 people who showed up here Tuesday afternoon got a glimpse of a...

With Tallahassee as his backdrop, Jeb Bush vowed Monday to “disrupt” the Washington establishment if he’s elected president, by shrinking government, seeking a line-item veto, campaigning for a balanced budget amendment and imposing a six-year ban on the revolving door of Congressmen entering the lobbying corps. “The ultimate disruption of Washington is to reject, as I do, the whole idea of a government forever growing more, borrowing more and spending more,” Florida’s former governor told 350 supporters at Florida State University.

Jeb Bush on Monday returned to the Florida capital to deliver a speech slamming lobbyists as a corrosive influence on public policy, and railing on the practice of public officials becoming professional influence peddlers. The jeremiad may have come as a shock to Tallahassee's government officials-turned-lobbyists whom Bush enlisted to help him sculpt his gubernatorial agenda, and who are now helping bankroll his Republican presidential campaign. In his speech, the former Florida governor said that as president he will push to ban lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for six years after they leave government. He decried the fact that before he...

Earlier this month 20,000 conservative supporters joined Donald Trump in Arizona at a campaign rally. In response to this enormous crowd, Senator John McCain said Trump “fired up the crazies.” McCain says he won’t apologize– On today’s Morning Joe, John McCain refused to apologize to the thousands of Arizonans attending a Trump rally that McCain called “crazies.” According to McCain, “crazies” is a “term of endearment” and a “term of affection.”

A 5 minute diatribe against Donald Trump. Totally unbelievable from the mouth of seriously over-exposed Brit Hume. Anyone close to Bush gets the same treatment in an overt or cloaked way. Check it out: Cruz, Walker, Paul, anyone....who isn't Bush... (Bush on the other hand is a genius, etc.) He's so far up Bush that his head is visible in Jeb's mouth when Jeb speaks. Same with Rove. I wouldn't vote for the Bush dynastic continuation if Jeb were the ONLY candidate running on either side. Just the other day he spoke in favor of transgendered troops. Absolute sell-out.

Monday marks the first in a series of speeches by Jeb Bush “that will outline what his priorities will be as president, beginning with taking on Mount Washington and reforming the way D.C. works” — this according to his campaign. The inaugural speech itself is titled “Taking on Mount Washington,” in fact. While it is an interesting metaphor, the tone and tenor of it also could mark a change in demeanor for Mr. Bush which could help him fend off critics who frame his campaign as inconsequential or tepid.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) may be “closest to Obama in his view on foreign policy,” as Dr. Charles Krauthammer put it on Tuesday, but he is facing stiff competition from Jeb Bush in that category. The former Florida governor praised Obama’s initial negotiating efforts with Iran on Tuesday, telling an audience in Denver that “we need to give him credit” for “bringing other people along and making it tougher.” The puzzling statement suggests the influence of James A. Baker III on the Bush campaign. Baker, a former Secretary of State, was the co-chair of the Iraq Study Group in 2006,...

Davenport— Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is wrapping up his first week as a presidential candidate in a three-day swing across Iowa, driving from the eastern bluffs above the Mississippi River to the western ones above the Missouri. The GOP governor will make at least 10 stops in this all-essential early state in the presidential nomination process, which will be key to his candidacy. Without a win or at least a very strong finish in this neighboring state where he spent part of his childhood, Walker is unlikely to sustain for long the campaign that he began Monday in Waukesha. To...

Last year, radical Muslim Nidal Hasan murdered 13 unarmed American soldiers and wounded 30 others. Thank you, George H.W. Bush! Yesterday, radical Muslim Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez murdered four unarmed American soldiers. Thank you, George H.W. Bush! Yes, it former President Bush whom we must thank for this, for it was he who put into place a regulation stating that American soldiers off the frontlines, for the most part, must be unarmed. (Clinton perpetuated it, but Bush started it.) That makes them sitting ducks for a single radical Muslim with a gun, who can casually go and shoot one soldier at...

Donald Trump “fired up the crazies” in his state when he held a rally in Phoenix last weekend, Arizona Sen. John McCain said in a recent interview. During that appearance (and others last weekend), Trump was joined by the father of Jamiel Shaw, who was killed by an undocumented immigrant. Trump has tapped into “some anger” in the state over the conditions at the border, McCain told The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza in an article published Thursday. “It’s very bad,” the Republican senator said. “This performance with our friend out in Phoenix is very hurtful to me,” McCain said. “Because...

Scott Walker stumbled over his own prior comments Wednesday, saying that when he called on the Boy Scouts to reinstate a ban on gay leaders because it “protected children,” he meant the ban protected them from media scrutiny. “The protection was not a physical protection,” Walker said Wednesday at an event in South Carolina, according to The New York Times. Rather, the Wisconsin governor continued, he was referring to “protecting them from being involved in the very thing you’re talking about right now, the political and media discussion about it, instead of just focusing on what Scouts is about, which...

1. He’s Part of the Middle Class (or He Actually Shops at Kohl’s and Sears) 2. He Didn’t Graduate from College 3. He Talks to People Not at Them Nor Does He Need to Shout to Make His Point 4. He Chooses His Battles Wisely 5. He Can Appeal to Conservatives and Non-Conservatives Alike 6. He Can Withstand the Liberal Hate Machine

Republicans have had a number of successes over the last few years, even if the successes have been eclipsed by two national failures in presidential elections. The GOP holds more state-legislature seats now than at any time since Herbert Hoover was President, and now controls both chambers of Congress for the first time since 2006. Their grip on the Senate is tenuous, but Republicans now hold a dominating advantage in House seats that may last at least until the next Census, and potentially far beyond that. In the field and on the ground in local elections, Republicans have managed to...

Sub head: Running as 'a fighter who can win' and implement 'commonsense conservative reforms.'Scott Walker isn’t big on self-reflection. He spent much of Sunday on a this-is-your-life tour of southeastern Wisconsin with an ABC News production team and World News Tonight anchor David Muir. Late in the afternoon, he signed the biennial budget for the state of Wisconsin, a final item on the to-do list he compiled last winter as he began exploring a bid for the presidency. Today, Walker will formally announce his candidacy for the White House. It’s pretty heady stuff, but Walker, who grew up the son...

What’s the deal with Donald Trump? He can’t possibly think he has a chance against a dozen highly qualified candidates, all but one of whom have held elective office, from governor to senator, for years. He must know that after a tiny pop in the polls over the silly summer season (remember Howard Dean?), he’ll tumble back down to earth and disappear. True, Mr. Trump couldn’t care less how embarrassing he is — to the Republican Party, sure, but also to himself. He’s an egotistical narcissist just blowing some of his $7 billion while in between tapings of his god-awful...

Kevin Williamson of National Review Online attacks the conservative base of the Republican Party in his latest column, “WHINOS: On the Martyrdom of the Holy, Holy Base.” His critique makes the valid point that conservatives who favor ideological purity or populist venting over electability are going to lose a lot of elections. He is as irritated as his colleague Jonah Goldberg is worried about the Donald Trump insurgency in the Republican presidential primary. However, both he and Goldberg fail to note the reason for Trump’s ascendancy. Trump is surging for the same reason that Newt Gingrich enjoyed a brief bubble...

Hi. I’m Wayne Allyn Root for Personal Liberty. Some people are getting very nervous: Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton and Jon Corzine, to name just a few. And I know why. --- snip -- But for once, the powerful socialist cabal and the corrupt crony capitalists are scared. I’ve never seen them this outraged, this vicious, this motivated or this coordinated. Never in all my years in politics have I seen anything like the way the mad dogs of hell have been unleashed on Donald Trump.

In a preview clip from his interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) said there will be a debate about removing the Confederate flag from national cemeteries in Congress but in his opinion the flag “should be gone.”

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is poised to win a huge victory on education as the state legislature passed a budget that repeals state tenure guarantees while also slashing the budget of the University of Wisconsin. The victory was enunciated by the acquiescence of the university, which recognized its defeat by passing a spending plan that implements Walker’s cuts. All that remains is for Walker to consummate his victory by affixing his signature to the budget. The two-year, $73 billion budget approved Thursday makes a host of changes Walker has sought in the realm of education. Wisconsin’s school voucher program is...

Donald Trump's campaign said he had to move his speech in Phoenix today from the Biltmore hotel to the city's convention center "due to the overwhelming response," but not everyone is happy the Republican presidential candidate is coming to Arizona. Trump plans to deliver a speech on "illegal immigration and numerous other topics," according to his campaign. He will be speaking at an event organized by the Republican Party of Maricopa County along with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has gained a reputation for his hard-line tactics to combat illegal immigration. "The Republican Party of Maricopa County is pleased to bring...

Many of us remember the histrionics on display by GOP members of Congress when they had to take positions and vote on hiking the country’s debt ceiling. Well, according to the following information, provided by someone who sounds very authentic, here is the legerdemain that went on in that closed door session of the uniparty in D.C. There are a number of details here that lead me to think this is a true account. You may certainly make up your own mind. The Congressman’s name and state are deleted to protect his identity. “That Tuesday, lunch began with our leadership...

The trouble started more than a week ago. Chris Christie was three days into his presidential campaign on July 2, yet he kept getting thrown off message with questions about Donald Trump. The New Jersey Governor, known for his attitude and bombast, flashed a frustrated glare at reporters. “I’ve said this now about eight or nine times. I’ll say the same thing again,” he said on the street in downtown Nashua between campaign stops. “The comments were inappropriate.” That much was clear. -snip- “When Donald trump speaks about Hispanics, if I’m the smart Republican that stage, I’m going to rally...

JEb Bush thinks you're all a bunch of lazy miscreants who need to work more. Or, at least, that's the spin the Democrats are putting on an awkward comment Bush made to The Union Leader. In the interview, the GOP presidential contender said "people need to work longer hours" if the country is to boost economic growth. "Workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows," Bush said in the full comment. "It means that people need to work longer hours, and through their productivity, gain more income for their families." Once the hubbub started, he quickly backtracked, saying...

Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday walked back some of his criticism of GOP contender Jeb Bush’s recent assertion that Americans should “work longer hours” to grow the economy. Sanders had pounced on the former Florida governor’s Wednesday assertion as evidence he was out of touch with economic reality. When Chris Cuomo, host of CNN's “New Day” accused Sanders (I-Vt.) of “twisting” the Republican's words, saying Bush meant to lament the lack of full-time jobs in the current economy, Sanders agreed. “If he is talking about the need for more full-time jobs rather than part-time jobs, he’s absolutely right,...

Wisconsin governor posed with his wife's cousin and her new bride three days after state court struck down anti same-sex wedding law Walker said he supported emergency measure to stop same-sex marriages then went to Shelli Marquardt and Cathy Priem's reception The next month Walker wrote to conservative group he wanted to endorse him and said: 'I support marriage between one man and one woman.' But same-sex couple tell Daily Mail Online: 'He has been nothing but supportive of our relationship and wanted us to have love in our lives.' Walker will formally announce he is running for Republican White...

Te 2016 gaffe wars have finally begun. Oh, there have been gaffes before now in this presidential race, but the one Jeb Bush uttered on Wednesday — that in order to get our economy moving, "people need to work longer hours" — may be the first of this campaign's gaffes that is being accepted by both his political opponents and the media as terribly consequential ("Jeb Bush's 'Longer Hours' Remark Will Haunt Him," reads a headline at Time magazine). I may not have a lot of love for Jeb, but even this liberal is willing to say that on this...

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush set off a firestorm this week by appearing to say in a newspaper interview that Americans should work longer hours. Democrats pounced, even as the Bush campaign said his comments were taken out of context. But everyone is missing the real story. Whether Bush’s comment was a criticism of American workers or a lament about a weakened job market, his words demonstrated such a lack of knowledge of economics that it’s virtually impossible to understand what was the context of his words.

The Democratic attack machine goes into overdrive as Jeb Bush says workers should ‘work longer hours.’ Jeb Bush’s statement Wednesday that Americans should “work longer hours” thrust the Democratic attack machine into high gear for the first time this cycle, as operatives seized on the opportunity to paint the GOP’s leading 2016 contender with the same devastating brush they used on Mitt Romney four years ago. As Bush’s communications shop urged reporters to note the context and diverted attention by releasing Bush’s aggressive fundraising numbers, Democrats engaged in tweet storms and press calls aimed at establishing a negative narrative around...

...give gushing interview and say Hillary and Jeb will treat each other with respect... but do we believe them? Self-proclaimed 'long lost brothers' George W. Bush and Bill Clinton shared a stage in a rare joint appearance in Texas on Thursday - to claim the current presidential campaign between their family members will be conducted with respect. The two former presidents - who have become friends in their retirement despite being from opposing parties - spoke about the contest that has seen Bill's wife Hillary seek the Democratic nomination and George's brother Jeb go after the Republican one. Both men...

Jeb Bush’s plutocratic fantasy land: Why his comments about American workers are completely divorced from reality. It’s possible that you can forgive Jeb Bush for not knowing about regular people, when in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader on Wednesday, he demonstrated a complete lack of appreciation for how hard Americans work — and for how little. Perhaps you can also forgive him for not recognizing that, in fact, Americans work more than their counterparts in other industrialized countries, that we get less vacation time, less maternity leave, and retire later than most anyone else, and that that...

The head of the Republican National Committee, responding to demands from increasingly worried party leaders, spent nearly an hour Wednesday on the phone with Donald Trump, urging the presidential candidate to tone down his inflammatory comments about immigration that have infuriated a key election constituency. The call from Chairman Reince Priebus, described by donors and consultants briefed on the conversation and confirmed by the RNC, underscores the extent to which Trump has gone from an embarrassment to a cause for serious alarm among top Republicans in Washington and nationwide.